adam87S4

It is a second Gen, i went and checked it out and the main relay doesn't click when the key is turned, the EGI fuse is good and connected. Is it safe to say the main relay is garbage? Any other reason for that to happen? If the main relay is bad where can i get another one? And how can i test it to know for sure that its bad?

adam87S4

Tried a friends main relay today and still had the same problem, no click... I unplugged the 2 plugs that go into it. On the 4 pin plug harness side 2 pins have 12 volts and 2 have nothing. On the 2 pin harness side, both have no voltage. No clue where to go from here

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

You're going to have to trace the system from the battery to the relay. With the wiring diagram, work backwards from the main relay coil all the way to the battery.

But a quick easy check first is the key switch. I think the connections are actually marked on the switch so make sure there is 12V on the appropriate connections. Maybe its unplugged under the dash?

adam87S4

Thanks for the input Aaron, last night I found all the diagrams I needed to start tracing the 12 volt signal. Found that my ignition switch wasn't getting the feed from the battery. Then found that I had forgot a single wire to plug in just under the main fuse panel. It was a black one pin connector. Once plugged in everything was normal lol it had to be something stupid right? Anyways going to try the first start today, ill post the results later.

Thanks again,

Adam

adam87S4

So the car started first try!!! only cranked for like 5 seconds then started. Ran decently just seems a bit rich not too bad though. something weird is happening though, it seems the car will only start while the battery is getting boosted. Before someone says make sure to charge your battery, I was wondering about the injector settings. If I am running an MS2 V3 with zeal, 550 primary 720 secondary both low impedance, am I supposed to be running resistors in line with the injectors? what should my settings be ? It seems like I cant get the injectors to pulse unless im being boosted to another vehicle.... does this sound possible or am I crazy? another thing is when im cranking the car to start it, should the injector gauge in tunerstudio show the injector pulsing?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

You don't need resistors if you use injector PWM.

Though with only two low impedance injectors, the PWM setting seems non-critical.

You should show injector time while cranking, no question. Are you getting power to the injectors? What is your cranking RPM? Maybe post a datalog of the cranking...

adam87S4

okay so I took a datalog of the engine cranking without being boosted by another car and it shows no rpm and no injector signals. tomorrow I am going to boost the car and start it and take a datalog of it to compare the 2. I know for sure the car starts, when it does it only takes a few cranks to get going and afterwards runs quite well with no problems (so far) have only started it 3 times as I haven't had much time over the last week to find out what is happening so this week im going to try and solve this weird issue... also my battery is not fully charged so ill take the datalogs again with a full battery.

adam87S4

Okay I took a datalog of it running the other day, still had to boost it to start. It really won't start otherwise and I can't figure it out. My battery shows 12v when I measure it. Is that too little? I changed the injector settings a bit when I started it this time and it ran alot crappier than when I was using Aarons settings on his site. Not quite sure what to do now. I noticed that when I try to start it on its own power the tach needle does not move at all. It does when I boost it to start though

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

What condition is your starter? It may be throwing out large amounts of noise.

adam87S4

All problems are gone now. Battery charges and holds charge. Car starts on its own now and runs decent. The maps seem to be super rich, it idles around 11.5-12 on the AEM wideband. I tried pushing it a bit and when I hit around 4k it just went straight to 10 and wouldn't pull anymore just started sputtering. My next task will be tuning the fuel map at idle and then slowly under load. Ill post results just in case anybody is interested...

adam87S4

Got the idle quite smooth at around 900, AFRs in high 12 low 13, still gunna tweak it a bit though. Found out that when I am starting the car it loses sync until the car is actually on then runs perfect, what could be causing this? what im saying is while its cranking when I take a data log it shows a bunch of lost sync counts, but when it starts up and is running it has no lost sync.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

If you are getting sync losses during cranking, then there is noise on the electrical system. The starter is the first suspect. Check all grounds from the engine to the chassis, check battery ground to the chassis. How is the MegaSquirt grounded? Is the shielded CAS wire grounded at ONLY ONE END?

adam87S4

Shielded wire grounded only at one end, megasquirt is grounded basically how you showed in your video of the megasquirt 3 pro install. Chassis is grounded well too. The codes are 17 and 11, which I have read have to do with the second trigger. Once it starts it has almost no sync loss, maybe 1 -3 counts max over 10 mins. Could my second ignition capture be wrong? Like falling instead of rising or vise versa?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Well, check your ignition capture settings.

Again, starter! Loose cable to starter, noisy stater, bad engine ground, loose battery cables, etc. If the noise only occurs when starting then it is starter or high current wiring problem. A bad starter can saturate the car with brush noise.

adam87S4

Ignition capture settings are rising edge for both. I have checked the wiring and the grounds are all good good. If this is starter related, how can I tell? The starter itself cranks well, so how would I be able to tell if its putting out noise? Strangely this only occurs on the first start of the day, after driving around and leaving the car off for a while it starts well and easy. The very first start of the day is always the hardest... One other thing I should mention just incase it helps is that I found if I boost the car to start, the first start is quick and easy. Maybe the starter takes too much juice and causes the megasquirt to lose sync from not enough power?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Sounds more and more like a starter issue. Once the starter warms up, it's fine. Unfortunately the only way to tell is to swap in another starter or scope the power feed while cranking.

Rising capture is correct.

As I mentioned, the starter could be dragging down the 12V due to exessive power use (did you measure?) or throwing out load of noise.

adam87S4

The battery seems to have slightly less voltage overnight, boosting it gives a quick startup. The starter may be drawing too much voltage while cranking causing the computer to lose sync possibly? Im now narrowing it down to starter or battery OR possibly I have wired something up stealing some voltage when the car is off...

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Most auto parts stores can test your starter for excessive draw.

adam87S4

What does it mean when the tach on my dash does show cranking then doesn't then does then doesn't? And so on until start. Noise?

korndog517

iTrader: (1)

^ the Tach is control by the trailing coil... my buddy has a really wierd issue with his car not wanting to start unless boosted. and it turned out that his trailing coil shorted internally, soon as we unpluged the trailing coil the car would start just fine.... try unplugging the trailing coil and starting up the car

adam87S4

I got a new battery with more cold cranking amps which seems to get the starter cranking faster and starts the car pretty well. Not sure if this solved the actual issue or just made it less of a problem, but not having to constantly boost the car is nice. If the problem persists throughout the week might try changing the starter as well. Other than the starting the car runs really well on the megasquirt

adam87S4

There is still sync loss when cranking, but it still seems to start okay now with the new battery. Any ideas on how to get rid of cranking sync loss? Again there is no sync loss while the car is running or driving only at cranking... Aaron cake suggests changing the starter? I will probably be doing that. Any other opinions?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

So I really need to say it again?!

THE STARTER IS NOISY

This may be due to a defective starter, or bad wiring to it, or bad grounds at the engine. But if you are getting sync loss when cranking, that is the #1 issue which needs to be checked.

adam87S4

Hey, its a little late for this post but the problem was fixed by switching my CAS, the signal is now strong for every startup hot or cold. Thanks for all the feedback